Topic: Intel

Intel on Monday announced that its first low-power Broadwell chips will hit the market in limited quantities before the end of the year, and that those processors will be intended for premium tablet- and hybrid-style devices, strongly implying that next-generation chips bound for Apple's popular MacBook Pro lineup won't be available until 2015 at the earliest.

Though it lacks a Retina display and features a thicker, heavier design, spinning hard drive, and a CD/DVD SuperDrive, Apple's legacy MacBook Pro survived the company's latest round of updates on Tuesday, and was even given a $100 price cut to $1,099.

Apple's MacBook Pro lineup, in both the 13- and 15-inch varieties, is now rumored to receive an update on Tuesday, following a leak that suggested all 15-inch models will come standard with 16 gigabytes of RAM.

Samsung Electronics and Globalfoundries are reportedly planning to begin building 14-nanometer mobile chips in small quantities at a New York-based facility in early 2015, which could set the stage for the team to begin building "A9" chips for Apple, according to a new report.

As IBM secretly mulls plans to sell off its increasing outdated processor chip fabs in New York and Vermont, a new wave of mobile chip developers--led by Apple, ARM and Qualcomm--are hiring away many of the top chip designers of the once leading firm.

While Intel Mobile Communications hasn't supplied baseband processors to Apple in years, the chipmaker is said to be looking to get back into the supply chain for future iPhone models in an effort to oust current partner Qualcomm.

During a court hearing on Thursday, a federal judge voiced concern over a proposed settlement reached in a class action lawsuit over alleged anti-poaching agreements involving Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe.

Apple fans hoping for significant Mac upgrades have been disappointed thus far in 2014, thanks in part to a lack of next-generation chips from Intel. That trend continued on Wednesday with the launch of a new low-end iMac that's focused on price rather than specs.

With Apple's online store down Wednesday morning, the company appears set to debut a new iMac desktop, with one last-minute leak revealing alleged specifications of a new low-end 21.5-inch model, sporting a slower and more affordable dual-core 1.4-gigahertz processor.

Apple partner Intel attempted to appeal a $1.44 billion fine from the European Union for unfair business practices, but the chipmaker lost that bid on Thursday when a court determined that the record fine would stand.

Semiconductor giant Intel on Wednesday put its next-generation "Skylake" platform on display, demonstrating an integrated system of magnetic resonance charging, wireless video, and cable-free peripheral connections that could make its way into future Macs from Apple.

Nearly three weeks after Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe agreed to settle out of court a class action lawsuit over alleged anti-poaching agreements, the case's class representative is requesting the $324 million settlement be rejected as "unfair and unjust."

The first of Apple's newly released MacBook Air units have already been put to the test, revealing a relatively minor boost to the thin-and-light notebook lineup's horsepower thanks to slightly faster Intel Haswell processors.

In a purported presentation slide leaked to the Web on Monday, Intel outlines its next-generation Thunderbolt specification -- "Alpine Ridge" -- that will boast double the throughput of current Thunderbolt 2 interface, while bringing massive gains in power efficiency.

A listing of Silicon Valley's top companies points out that Apple now brings in more revenue ($174 billion) than second place Hewlett Packard and third place Google combined, and earns more money ($37 billion) than the rest of the top five together.

A class-action lawsuit from tech sector employees against employers including Apple and Google seeks some $9 billion in lost wages -- an astronomical sum that the complainants could ultimately receive, some believe, thanks to a mountain of evidence appearing to implicate Silicon Valley employers in an alleged no-hire cartel.

Intel on Monday took the covers off of Thunderbolt Networking, an addition to the Thunderbolt 2 interconnect standard that will allow users to transfer data between two Macs and PCs at up to 10 gigabits per second over an emulated Ethernet connection.